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Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Profusion of grandiose words
       does not good poetry make
       it tends to be too ornate and awkward
       readers to such poet they unkindly take
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
To be able to find
just the starting right line
that even eludes the poet's mind
then a poem does itself define
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
No collision of mind and heart
in their fusion is poetry's intrinsic art
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Neither thought, feeling
nor language being forced
like a stream in natural flowing
such a poem will be rightly endorsed
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Be glad when
you stop short
in negotiation with words
you're treading on the right spot
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
In many starved moments
when you aren't ready
neither feeling or thought
would visit---forget about writing poetry.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Keats suffered beyond endurance
      when he suffered in silence more
      the richest poetry woke from his pain
      heavenly words they began to ceaselessly pour
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
The poet is moved
    less by joy than sorrow
    he treads on sanctified soil
    his poetry's beauty then begins to glow
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
I'm not done
have hardly begun!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Form, style, individuality
put this last
substance should precede
all that will come to pass
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Long-winded?  Avoid-
  no padding
  nor circumlocution
  that's fine writing!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
I write---truthfully
   not to agree
   or disagree
   only for me!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Theirs is
    the grand symphony
    all that I could
    is to compose the simple melody.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Only this
       wishing it
       to be genuine
        not about wit.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Words I have abused
    too long
    now I've come to realise
    I committed wrong
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
I couldn't stand aside
life has swept me in its tide
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Poetry does rush
      through  my vein
      with its sweeping gust
      I do often feel the pain
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2020
From the remote dizzy heights
of the cliff stood a proud raven
surveying below with watchful eyes
no gunman would see where it was hidden-

the baby-birds had been richly fed
summer sun gushed out its light so resplendent
the nest was safe on a sturdy tree in an old estate
intermittent shrill caws echoed from moment to moment
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
You are lucky
a few offended
you today
too many for me!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Bank manager to me:

I have a credit report on you, Mr ****
it says:  you didn't pay the tax penalty
of $1---- yes--you did protest....so what?
loan application rejected! --our bank values integrity!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
It's fine enough you don't like me
     why kick my poor harmless doggie?
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Business is down
  and the boss blames me
  not fair--the brute!
  I am one staff of six hundred and fifty!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
You hit my car
from behind
and you said:
'are you out of your mind?'
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
No more loans to you, dear, my dear Harry
    I lost a thousand bucks at the races---I'm empty!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Week-end summer in Melbourne
   the thermometer hit straight to 43
   ' we have a grid problem--will rectify
     our apology' announced the electricity company
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
The boss was caught in the rain
     (he forgot his umbrella)
     he shouted at us again and again
     never had come across such a vicious ******!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Oh, John, you forgot again
      to bring your wallet?
      I should advance for the lunch
      do you think I am Warren Buffet?
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
I'm applying for a job
   not my wife Susie
   yes, she's a dance-girl
   why do you disqualify me?
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2019
From where I last left off
I was handed what is the now
moments are chains unbroken
I can't escape anyhow-

yet my heart has not wavered
nor what I pledged as love's sacred vow
from where we long ago started
to that undying faith we must bow.
* after Robert Browning
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
Frost
a word
that chills
my spine
don't quite know
why
are my winter-years
telling on me?
have I given up
my toast
of younger days
when life meant
the most
to my brave
and proud heart
when I knew
but kisses and wonders
and no tears?

did love fail me
and beauty hide away?
was it my fault?
when life froze?

how many winters
would come when most
had run their course
and left but sad traces?
now fled is the splendour
what's left of youth to boast?

this is the time
the curtain to draw
I long for sleep
I have no more promises
to keep
all my feelings
are numb
buried in frost.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
Your parting words
in brightest summer:
'I don't love you anymore
go find another'--

suddenly the sun dissolved
all was the bleakest of winter
each snow-drop was my very heart's silent tear
flowers buried their heads and perished in the heather-

did my heart lose its beat?
I did wonder and wonder
was every finger of mine frost-bitten
did I to despair entire surrender?

frozen in time, transfixed I stood
on the slippery sinking glacier
the winds lashed at my face
like bricks landed on the mirror.
* one of the coldest mornings in Melbourne
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
Be fruitful
not over-full
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2018
The fruit of knowledge?
a misnomer---civilisation smells
of rotten debris amidst
the ruins of hope-- spells
the doom and decay
of moral character--
sacrilege!

once at the beginning of time
there was beauty, grandeur
innocence, purity and order
even without the use of words
earth was pregnant with a language
with songs and sounds that out-rival
every man-made wonder
at every bend there's the fruitfulness
the tender touch and the smile of nature-

where has the glory fled?*
why have the songs died?
why is human good dead?
why has the heart so bitterly cried?


silence
hush
dusk sets in
then night
makes its presence
the earth is still
not the gentlest murmur
from the bordering sea
nor the faintest rustle
from any hidden tree
not a single bird-song
is heard from the timeless hill

the hours deepen
as the sky's clouds further
they darken
the heart weeps
desolate, alone,
melancholy stricken

the orchard no longer
bears any fruit
it's cold and barren
the farmer turns away
the ground is sullen

no one
could be sure
when would be
the season of fruitfulness
if it would ever happen

it's the world
we live in
desperate
lost
forlorn
helpless
in its fruitlessness.
* an echo of Wordsworth
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
'Further down the road'
as many would say
but where would it lead?
do they know the way?

How long for sure is it?
would it take a year or a day?
the phrase has no logical locus
best have it put away.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The surest and safest way of escape

is in total self-abandonment

despite adversity of any size and shape

the heart in quietude is never shaken
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Zen is not about wit
only about that which is 'it'
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
The past we copy
    that's the source of our misery
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Clouded is the knowing
      the unknowing is the key
      to understanding
* intuition is more powerful than reason
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
The blindness of knowledge
but this people would not acknowledge
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Choose this
the opposite
sets in--in contradiction
that which is, is not 'it'
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
That which contains the smallest utility
  should not be regarded as futility
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Beware, hearing
    is not the same as listening
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
I walk on
   the distance I mind not
   I follow my feet
   empty is my thought
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Loosen the knot
     clarity wrought
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
A life
      applies
      only to
      those alive
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
Where the everywhere
      is no where
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2019
You remember the land
it no longer recognises you
you went away in your youth
no longer in its view--

you should understand
the old must give way to the new
kids are now adults in lieu
forgotten you are-- that's true!
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2020
We were too busy
to know--that we died
little by little--by
convention crucified-

what we are we have given away
to gain acceptance-- we denied
and rejected our intrinsic selves
tears are futile though we have bitterly cried.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2018
This is the angst
  the self-afflicted addiction
  the obsession
  the oppression
  the desperation
  the cul-de-sac

   the load on the back
  heavier each day
that won't go away
  

    the heartache
  the pain
  the desolation
  ( no hope of consolation)
   the conundrum

  the doom and gloom
  the nightmare
  the dark closed room
  of the mind
  with no door
  to escape
  from
  
  vox clamantis in deserto
  (your voice no one would heed
   only the desert wind and sand
   would hear your cry
  as you linger under
  the mocking sky)    
  
  terra incognita
  the mirage
  the struggle
  (never know
   where to go)
  
   the lacuna
  the grey area
  the questioning
  the doubt
  the slow perishing
  of self
  the absence
  of enlightening
  

   the tortuous path
  that must
  be trodden
   as long
  as  life subsists
  all alone

  but when
  would be the end
  of the sojourn?
  as this is no man's land

  why the seeking
  to know?
  what to know?
  how to know?
  what's the compelling need
  to know?

   question after question
   knocked back in mockery
   the perennial rude reply:
  'No, no, no!'.

   another voice
  descends from nowhere:
  ' Why can't you allow
    things to be so?

    look at the flowers
    in the field
    nothing do they know
    yet in such glory
      and splendour they blow'.
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